Regarding AI and Thinking, I wonder if scientists even know how amoeba and paramecia think.
Most people just assume they don't think. But what makes them so sure? I mostly see circular logic - e.g. "thinking requires neurons and single celled creatures can't think because they have no neurons".
Yeah - many of the English navy names are quite good. I do like Ship names like "Attitude Adjuster" and "Frank Exchange Of Views", but they are not very practical (Indefatigable is not very practical too;) ).
One important development in the 20th century was the introduction of soft ice cream. A chemical research team in Britain (of which a young Margaret Thatcher was a member)[21][22] discovered a method of doubling the amount of air in ice cream, which allowed manufacturers to use less ingredients, thereby reducing costs. It made possible the soft ice cream machine in which a cone is filled beneath a spigot on order. In the United States, Dairy Queen, Carvel, and Tastee-Freez pioneered in establishing chains of soft-serve ice cream outlets.
Point is Android is still mentioned but they don't mention Linux at all. Just like Google etc say ChromeOS without saying Linux. All for perhaps very similar reasons people say Android instead of Linux.
actually, the biggest problem in the US is utility monopolies.
I disagree. The problem with utilities is poor regulation. But biggest problem is most people not knowing what the real problems are (so the politicians will never get pressured to fix them- and instead give the voters what the voters believe is more important).
It'll just be more expensive to have 4 different water service providers pulling their own pipes to the same area. There are some things that conventional capitalism and free markets don't do better. You don't really need that much innovation to provide utility services. It is also not that difficult to set up reasonable performance metrics and targets.
When your regulators are just making things better for the utilities rather than the people, the solution is not more utilities. The solution is to sack the regulator and put in a new one.
Companies would be happy to squeeze the customers even more without regulators - they no longer have to influence/bribe regulators to change/remove unwanted rules.
Many of these things IMO don't even have to be privately own and run for a big profits or even run for profit. A shopping mall or a factory as an entire economic entity doesn't make the bulk of its money from utility charges or transportation (elevators/escalators). The big bucks come from elsewhere - rental, buying and selling of higher margin goods.
So similarly where a City (e.g. Austin, TX ) really makes its money is likely to be elsewhere rather than charging its inhabitants for water/internet/energy or public transportation. Not saying the services have to be free - just saying that the focus and priority should be different. It is not so important that the water utility makes enough profit as the City actually has clean water all the time, at reasonable costs.
But if your utility is a public listed corporation the priorities change. They'd aim to make profit even if the City suffers a bit more as a result. It's like outsourcing - they don't care about the long term prospects of the City as long as they can argue that they've met the targets. And if there are no targets except profit...
Imagine a tiny blackhole with literally tons of charged particles beyond the event horizon (which is not far away for a tiny blackhole) in close very high speed orbit around it. Those particles might still be affected by magnetic fields, and how about their gravitational effect on the blackhole itself?
Perhaps some real physicists can explain what would happen in such a scenario.
Religious judges are fine. But how many judges will think the following can both be 100% literal and true?
Genesis 41:57: And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.
I doubt literally ALL the world did that. I think someone should be able to scientifically prove "within reason" that not all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph during the famine period. I doubt literally ALL the Mayans, Australian Aborigines, North American Natives and Chinese did that, even if there was a famine in their area. Maybe a few did but definitely not all. Some would have stayed home.
God himself uses figurative language a lot in Genesis - just skim through it quickly and you'll see some: e.g. Genesis 13:14-17. Jesus uses parables and nonliteral speech a lot too.
Maybe this idiot is one of those Christians who hasn't actually read much of the Bible - he just keeps reading a few favourite portions.
But is the challenge based on literal interpretation of the English version or the Hebrew version? Hard to tell since he's probably one of "those Creationists";).
Any Christian who thinks the Bible should be interpreted literally should read the Bible more and realize that even Jesus himself likes to use parables, metaphors and figures of speech.
And God himself in Genesis uses figures of speech, for example:
Genesis 13:14 The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring[a] forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."
So are Abraham's offspring literally like the dust of the earth? Or are they figuratively like the dust of the earth in number.
Or are we supposed to literally take that figuratively?;) See the rest of Genesis too there's plenty.
For example: Genesis 41:57 And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.
I doubt literally ALL the world did that. I think someone should be able to scientifically prove that not all the world at that time came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph. I doubt literally ALL the Mayans, Australian Aborigines and Chinese did that, even if there was a famine in their area. Maybe a few did but not all.
So someone go take this idiot's 10K and shut him up.
All that doesn't work if I want to "Explore F" drive. Or "ssh to host #5". Or if you need more than 10 items.
There's plenty of other stuff they could have done to make life easier e.g. http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/29001/
Also when you are working with a document in an app and then you want to copy it somewhere or email it somewhere, too often in most GUIs you have to look for the document with a file browser over and over again for each app. Why should users need to do this? The app already has opened/saved the file you want. At worst the user should be able to easily copy the "URL" of the document and use that URL in another app. At best it should be even easier than that.
Instead after all those years and billions Microsoft gives us crap like Vista and Metro. And GNOME tries to make something worse.
Are those figures right? That's really expensive compared to palm oil. No wonder many countries are chopping down rainforests and replacing them with oil palm plantations.
Don't be surprised how often the average Windows user is asked by "HelpDesk" to launch cmd and then run ipconfig/all, then ipconfig/flushdns and so on.
The people who thought up the Win9x/2000 interface actually had some pretty good ideas. For example, on Windows 9x/2000 and XP in classic mode, I can create a folder in the start menu called "3 Launch". Then copy all the shortcuts I want to it and rename them accordingly- either number or letter prefix. Then launching stuff is just a matter of pressing: winkey,3,number/letter. I also had a folder named "1 Explore" so winkey,1,1 = Explore Desktop; winkey,1,2 = Explore Home Folder. winkey,1,e = Explore E drive; and so on.
With the Windows 7 start menu you can't do that stuff anymore even in the "classic mode".
Luckily you can still copy shortcuts/programs to the shell:sendto folder to open any arbitrary file/folder using those shortcuts/program. But for some reason opening up the "sendto" is often quite slow.
Wachovia admitted it didn't do enough to spot illicit funds in handling $378.4 billion for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007. That's the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S. history -- a sum equal to one-third of Mexico's current gross domestic product.
In Mexico, HSBC became the preferred bank for drug cartels and money launderers, according to the Justice Department. The government said the bank didn't raise red flags even when billions of dollars in transactions took place in cash, the typical mode of operation for drug dealers.
They're not fighting crime that well are they?
Mexico might be a far better place than it is now if those criminals in Mexico couldn't get their hands on all those billions of dollars from the USA. The banks helping them launder all that money have blood on their hands.
And all they have to do is pay fines and often it's just the banks money not their own money. I don't see anyone in the banks going to jail for their part in it. All these laws aren't going to work till the people involved in such crimes also risk jail time.
You'll have to go through all the pain criminals have to go through to launder their profits, and like criminals you're going to pay a hefty commission in order to get cash you can safely use.
The big time criminals use banks like Wachovia, Bank of America and HSBC to launder money.
Slashdot Mirror
Regarding AI and Thinking, I wonder if scientists even know how amoeba and paramecia think.
Most people just assume they don't think. But what makes them so sure? I mostly see circular logic - e.g. "thinking requires neurons and single celled creatures can't think because they have no neurons".
It seems to me that they do somewhat complicated stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvOz4V699gk
A blind and mute paraplegic could still think. Just because something doesn't have the same senses and physical abilities doesn't mean it can't think.
Yeah - many of the English navy names are quite good. I do like Ship names like "Attitude Adjuster" and "Frank Exchange Of Views", but they are not very practical (Indefatigable is not very practical too ;) ).
Which category is this one: http://www.universalrejection.org/
This might be easier to do: http://sillywalkclock.blogspot.com/
I'm assuming it's a monochrome display.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream
One important development in the 20th century was the introduction of soft ice cream. A chemical research team in Britain (of which a young Margaret Thatcher was a member)[21][22] discovered a method of doubling the amount of air in ice cream, which allowed manufacturers to use less ingredients, thereby reducing costs. It made possible the soft ice cream machine in which a cone is filled beneath a spigot on order. In the United States, Dairy Queen, Carvel, and Tastee-Freez pioneered in establishing chains of soft-serve ice cream outlets.
How's that not nerdy enough for you?
Point is Android is still mentioned but they don't mention Linux at all. Just like Google etc say ChromeOS without saying Linux. All for perhaps very similar reasons people say Android instead of Linux.
Interestingly for Samsung's Singapore and UK pages there's even a "bada" OS choice:
http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/mobile-devices/smartphones/
http://www.samsung.com/sg/consumer/mobile-devices/smartphone
actually, the biggest problem in the US is utility monopolies.
I disagree. The problem with utilities is poor regulation. But biggest problem is most people not knowing what the real problems are (so the politicians will never get pressured to fix them- and instead give the voters what the voters believe is more important).
It'll just be more expensive to have 4 different water service providers pulling their own pipes to the same area. There are some things that conventional capitalism and free markets don't do better. You don't really need that much innovation to provide utility services. It is also not that difficult to set up reasonable performance metrics and targets.
When your regulators are just making things better for the utilities rather than the people, the solution is not more utilities. The solution is to sack the regulator and put in a new one.
Companies would be happy to squeeze the customers even more without regulators - they no longer have to influence/bribe regulators to change/remove unwanted rules.
Many of these things IMO don't even have to be privately own and run for a big profits or even run for profit. A shopping mall or a factory as an entire economic entity doesn't make the bulk of its money from utility charges or transportation (elevators/escalators). The big bucks come from elsewhere - rental, buying and selling of higher margin goods.
So similarly where a City (e.g. Austin, TX ) really makes its money is likely to be elsewhere rather than charging its inhabitants for water/internet/energy or public transportation. Not saying the services have to be free - just saying that the focus and priority should be different. It is not so important that the water utility makes enough profit as the City actually has clean water all the time, at reasonable costs.
But if your utility is a public listed corporation the priorities change. They'd aim to make profit even if the City suffers a bit more as a result. It's like outsourcing - they don't care about the long term prospects of the City as long as they can argue that they've met the targets. And if there are no targets except profit...
Really? I hear many people mention _Android_ when talking about phones.
But as per the topic they rarely mention Linux when talking about their android phones.
Blackholes might not be that uncommon.
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/mar/15/micro-black-holes-could-form-at-lower-than-expected-energies
There are even some theories that some ball lightning could be due to blackholes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning#Black_hole_hypothesis
Imagine a tiny blackhole with literally tons of charged particles beyond the event horizon (which is not far away for a tiny blackhole) in close very high speed orbit around it. Those particles might still be affected by magnetic fields, and how about their gravitational effect on the blackhole itself?
Perhaps some real physicists can explain what would happen in such a scenario.
Every so often, citizens behead the king and redistribute the wealth
More like behead the king and install a new king/dictatorship.
Which redistributes a few loaves of bread.
Other than the bootup and game tests, the tests don't seem to test the caching ability as much.
The file copying tests should have been done more than once from the drive to the drive itself. Or from the drive to a ramdisk.
Structural coloration is possible: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_coloration
So using similar concepts couldn't they use some nanotech structures to split/redirect the colours?
Religious judges are fine. But how many judges will think the following can both be 100% literal and true?
Genesis 41:57: And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.
I doubt literally ALL the world did that. I think someone should be able to scientifically prove "within reason" that not all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph during the famine period. I doubt literally ALL the Mayans, Australian Aborigines, North American Natives and Chinese did that, even if there was a famine in their area. Maybe a few did but definitely not all. Some would have stayed home.
God himself uses figurative language a lot in Genesis - just skim through it quickly and you'll see some: e.g. Genesis 13:14-17. Jesus uses parables and nonliteral speech a lot too.
Maybe this idiot is one of those Christians who hasn't actually read much of the Bible - he just keeps reading a few favourite portions.
But is the challenge based on literal interpretation of the English version or the Hebrew version? Hard to tell since he's probably one of "those Creationists" ;).
Any Christian who thinks the Bible should be interpreted literally should read the Bible more and realize that even Jesus himself likes to use parables, metaphors and figures of speech.
And God himself in Genesis uses figures of speech, for example:
Genesis 13:14 The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring[a] forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."
So are Abraham's offspring literally like the dust of the earth? Or are they figuratively like the dust of the earth in number.
Or are we supposed to literally take that figuratively? ;) See the rest of Genesis too there's plenty.
For example: Genesis 41:57 And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.
I doubt literally ALL the world did that. I think someone should be able to scientifically prove that not all the world at that time came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph. I doubt literally ALL the Mayans, Australian Aborigines and Chinese did that, even if there was a famine in their area. Maybe a few did but not all.
So someone go take this idiot's 10K and shut him up.
In which case maybe VM vendors/users could use that as an option for graceful shutdowns.
Does pfsense support automatic shutting down from UPS/low battery alerts?
All that doesn't work if I want to "Explore F" drive. Or "ssh to host #5". Or if you need more than 10 items.
There's plenty of other stuff they could have done to make life easier e.g. http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/29001/
Also when you are working with a document in an app and then you want to copy it somewhere or email it somewhere, too often in most GUIs you have to look for the document with a file browser over and over again for each app. Why should users need to do this? The app already has opened/saved the file you want. At worst the user should be able to easily copy the "URL" of the document and use that URL in another app. At best it should be even easier than that.
Instead after all those years and billions Microsoft gives us crap like Vista and Metro. And GNOME tries to make something worse.
Yeah it's very old fashioned. If I wanted to keep typing the name of stuff I'd use zsh.
It's a pretty poor GUI if the GUI is not much better than zsh + screen at launching and managing tasks.
Are those figures right? That's really expensive compared to palm oil. No wonder many countries are chopping down rainforests and replacing them with oil palm plantations.
I think even solar+batteries is cheaper.
Don't be surprised how often the average Windows user is asked by "HelpDesk" to launch cmd and then run ipconfig /all, then ipconfig /flushdns and so on.
Whether Linux/Windows/OSX it's the same thing.
Hence my proposal: http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/29001/
Even advanced users might find use for it (since it allows you to use keyboard shortcuts to do under the hood stuff).
The people who thought up the Win9x/2000 interface actually had some pretty good ideas. For example, on Windows 9x/2000 and XP in classic mode, I can create a folder in the start menu called "3 Launch". Then copy all the shortcuts I want to it and rename them accordingly- either number or letter prefix. Then launching stuff is just a matter of pressing: winkey,3,number/letter. I also had a folder named "1 Explore" so winkey,1,1 = Explore Desktop; winkey,1,2 = Explore Home Folder. winkey,1,e = Explore E drive; and so on.
With the Windows 7 start menu you can't do that stuff anymore even in the "classic mode".
Luckily you can still copy shortcuts/programs to the shell:sendto folder to open any arbitrary file/folder using those shortcuts/program. But for some reason opening up the "sendto" is often quite slow.
Funny that you mentioned Mexico:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-29/banks-financing-mexico-s-drug-cartels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal.html
Wachovia admitted it didn't do enough to spot illicit funds in handling $378.4 billion for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007. That's the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S. history -- a sum equal to one-third of Mexico's current gross domestic product.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/10/news/companies/hsbc-money-laundering/index.html
In Mexico, HSBC became the preferred bank for drug cartels and money launderers, according to the Justice Department. The government said the bank didn't raise red flags even when billions of dollars in transactions took place in cash, the typical mode of operation for drug dealers.
They're not fighting crime that well are they?
Mexico might be a far better place than it is now if those criminals in Mexico couldn't get their hands on all those billions of dollars from the USA. The banks helping them launder all that money have blood on their hands.
And all they have to do is pay fines and often it's just the banks money not their own money. I don't see anyone in the banks going to jail for their part in it. All these laws aren't going to work till the people involved in such crimes also risk jail time.
You'll have to go through all the pain criminals have to go through to launder their profits, and like criminals you're going to pay a hefty commission in order to get cash you can safely use.
The big time criminals use banks like Wachovia, Bank of America and HSBC to launder money.
What next you have to iron your money too, not just launder it?
I actually do want to know. Wonder if it'll make a good Ask Slashdot question.
I guess diving into a very fizzy pool might not cause a much bigger splash than normal based on this: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xen3mc_human-fizz-bomb-large-scale-mentos_tech